GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador, March 7, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Rival factions of an Ecuadoran drug trafficking gang fought each other Thursday in the violent port city of Guayaquil, leaving at least 12 people dead, officials said.

The toll was reported by the local police chief, Herbie Guamani, and a police source said the gunfight involved opposing factions of a gang called Los Tigerones, one of the most powerful in this formerly peaceful country.

Ecuador is home to an estimated 20 criminal gangs involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion, wreaking havoc in a country of 18 million squeezed between the world's biggest cocaine producers, Peru and Colombia.

In recent years, Ecuador has been plunged into violence by the rapid spread of transnational cartels that use its ports, like Guayaquil, to ship cocaine to the United States and Europe.

For example, homicides have risen from six per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018 to a record 47 in 2023.

Experts say the gangs are constantly mutating and growing stronger with profits from crime.

Guayaquil is the capital of Guayas, one of seven provinces where a state of emergency has been in force for the past two months as the government battles the gangsters.

Last month President Daniel Noboa said he would ask unspecified allied countries to send special forces to help him wage this fight.

The violence is not letting up as Ecuador gears for a runoff election April 13 in which Noboa will face leftist Luisa Gonzalez.